PHILADELPHIA-Work began this week on an entirely new type of project for Philadelphia, a $35 million factory conversion that will create an “education village” where teachers can live, work and play, the developers tell GlobeSt.com.
D3 Real Estate Development of Philadelphia and partner Seawall Development Co. of Baltimore have broken ground at a turn-of-the-century complex at 100 West Oxford St. that will become “Oxford Mills - The Center for Educational Excellence.”
The historically-certified two-building complex will be turned into 114 market-rate apartments to be leased at 25% discount to teachers.
The center will also provide 40,000 square feet of “high quality, cost-effective” commercial office space designed to support educational non-profits. Teach for America's regional headquarters will be the anchor tenant. The commercial space is to include shared conference and training rooms and a common kitchen and break-out room, as well as a fitness center, outdoor courtyard, and on-site parking. In addition, a cafe and “incubator” offices for start-up educational non-profits will be created on-site.
Canuso and his partner Greg Hill tell GlobeSt.com that they were brought into the project by partner Seawall Development. That company's principals, father and son team Donald and Thibault Manekin, used their decades of experience as developers and in the nonprofit community to form a “socially conscious development company.”
Seawall Development has done several Baltimore projects that created apartments for teachers, office space for nonprofit organizations and creative space for charter schools. “Seawall wanted a like-minded company to work with on this project to support the Philadelphia school system and Teach for America,” says Hill. Teach for America places teachers in urban and rural school districts.
Seawall has become expert at arranging creative financing for their projects, Canuso said. “They have been able to pull together New Market Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits, city credits, brownfield and Enterprise Zone credits,” he says.
“It becomes possible to take on really challenging sites, but still support the good work being done to support our Philadelphia school system,” adds Canuso. A similar project for a "Teachers Village" is underway in Newark, but it involves new construction.
The historic complex in Philadelphia had most recently functioned as a lamp factory. Canuso and Hill said they had to remove about 40,000 lamps made and stored at the acility before they could begin work on restoration.
The Oxford Mills location is close to two El train stops, the developers note, and teachers will also have the option of free parking at the site, which borders both the Northern Liberties and Fishtown neighborhoods.
The project will be available for occupancy beginning April 2014.
D3 recently completed work on these other residential and mixed-use projects in the city: Memphis Flats, The Ayer Condominium, Old City 108, Fairmount Court 2.0 and The NINE.
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